The Colville Mountain Peace Sign

Colville 'C' Transformed -- Briefly

By Chris Cowbrough, S-E Editor

One of Colville's
most visible and long time icons was briefly transformed into
the universal sign of peace early last Wednesday morning.

The Colville 'C,' which for most stands for the community
in the valley down below, was changed into a peace sign by three
enterprising area residents who said they had been planning the
caper for over a year.

Unlike many incidents that have involved the 'C' and lighted
cross several feet to the east, there was no vandalism involved
this time.

The perpetrators, Peter Quinn, Jack Cabe and Matt Riggan,
used 300-feet of Tyvek to design their peace sign. The building
material was Quinn's.

The trio undertook their ambitious project shortly before
day-break on Wednesday. Their handiwork was in place for local
denizens to see for nearly an hour.

The three had planned to design their peace sign under cover
of a fog-shrouded morning, but that didn't happen. The morning
was clear and cold.

A local resident spotted the three transforming the 'C' and
called local law enforcement before heading up the mountain himself.
He figured, like a lot of others, that the handiwork must have
included the usual acts of Colville Mountain vandalism.

Colville Police caught up with Quinn, Cabe and Riggan coming
down the mountain shortly after they had finished their sign
of the times (just after 7 a.m.). They were accompanied back
to the site, where the trio spent about 30-minutes cleaning up
the site and removing their handiwork.

The three were released from police custody shortly thereafter.
There were no charges filed.

Quinn, Cabe and Riggan all said their experience with local
police was a positive one. Apparently, the officers had a sense
of humor.

"All in all, everybody was pretty cool about it,"
Cabe said, adding that he took part in the project to honor a
friend, Milton Spidell. "He was a longtime peace activist
and veteran in the community who passed away last year."

Riggan assured those who didn't see the prank as so positive
that their plan was always to fill the 'C' with Tyvek and nothing
more. There was never any intention to vandalize or destroy the
property.

That would have run counter to what they were trying to accomplish.

"The plan was never to deface anything," Riggan
pointed out. "The kid who redid the 'C' for his (Colville
High) senior project did a great job. The community should be
very proud of him. His work gave us a good place to start from."

The 'C' to 'Peace' got considerable internet/Facebook dialogue
around the region and beyond last week. The majority appreciated
what they considered to be respectful, good, clean fun-with a
message we can all embrace.

"We hope what we did makes people think and get a dialogue
going," Quinn said.

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